44 Breathtaking Robert B. Cialdini Quotes

Feb 5, 2016

Robert Cialdini is a professor of marketing, business, and psychology. As an author and speaker, Cialdini has participated in nine publications. As the author of ‘Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive,’ here a look at some great Robert B. Cialdini quotes to remember.

“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.”

“All the weapons of influence discussed in this book work better under some conditions than under others. If we are to defend ourselves adequately against any such weapon, it is vital that we know its optimal operating conditions in order to recognize when we are most vulnerable to its influence.”

“All things being equal, you root for your own sex, your own culture, your own locality…and what you want to prove is that you are better than the other person. Whomever you root for represents you; and when he wins, you win.”

“Apparently we have such an automatically positive reaction to compliments that we can fall victim to someone who uses them in an obvious attempt to win our favor.”

“As a general rule, whenever the dust settles and we find losers looking and speaking like winners (and vice versa), we should be especially wary of the conditions that kicked up the dust—in.”

“Audiences have been successfully manipulated by those who use social evidence, even when that evidence has been openly falsified.”

“Bad social proof in this situation. Temporarily disconnect automatic pilot.”

“Be as precise as possible about your need for aid.”

“Compared to the customers who got only the standard sales appeal, those who were also told about the future scarcity of beef bought more than twice as much.”

“Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment.”

“First, we seem to assume that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, they must know something we don’t.”

“Freedoms once granted will not be relinquished without a fight.”

“In this case, because we know that the things that are difficult to possess are typically better than those that are easy to possess, we can often use an item’s availability to help us quickly and correctly decide on its quality.”

“It is much more profitable for salespeople to present the expensive item first, not only because to fail to do so will lose the influence of the contrast principle; to fail to do so will also cause the principle to work actively against them. Presenting an inexpensive product first and following it with an expensive one will cause the expensive item to seem even more costly as a result—hardly a desirable consequence for most sales organizations.”

“It states that one means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.”

“Knowing what I now know, if I could go back in time, would I make the same choice?”

“Observers trying to decide what a man is like look closely at his actions.”

“Often we don’t realize that our attitude toward something has been influenced by the number of times we have been exposed to it in the past.”

“Once again we can see that social proof is most powerful for those who feel unfamiliar or unsure in a specific situation and who, consequently, must look outside of themselves for evidence of how best to behave there.”

“Our typical reaction to scarcity hinders our ability to think.”

“People seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.”

“The drop from abundance to scarcity produced a decidedly more positive reaction to the cookies than did constant scarcity.”

“The feeling of being in competition for scarce resources has powerfully motivating properties.”

“The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.”

“The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it.”

“The obligation to receive reduces our ability to choose whom we wish to be indebted to and puts that power in the hands of others.”

“The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.”

“The truly gifted negotiator, then, is one whose initial position is exaggerated enough to allow for a series of concessions that will yield a desirable final offer from the opponent, yet is not so outlandish as to be seen as illegitimate from the start.”

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”

“The world abounds with cults populated by dependent people who are led by a charismatic figure.”

“There is a natural human tendency to dislike a person who brings us unpleasant information, even when that person did not cause the bad news. The simple association with it is enough to stimulate our dislike.”

“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”

“We all fool ourselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided.”

“We will use the actions of others to decide on proper behavior for ourselves, especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves.”

“When the newspaper detailed the suicide of a young person, it was young drivers who then piled their cars into trees, poles, and embankments with fatal results; but when the news story concerned an older person’s suicide, older drivers died in such crashes. l advised, then, to take special care in our travels at these times.”

Robert Cialdini reviews the six principles of influence during short segment before his Keynote.

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After being physically and mentally disabled by a brain tumor, Brandon overcame the odds to regain his health to help his pregnant wife in her fight against stage 3 breast cancer. A couple of years later he launched his blog. Today over 1 million business owners read his blog every month. Read Brandon's inspirational comeback story here.